Nigel Farage labels £350m NHS promise 'a mistake'

11:38 - 24 Jun 2016

Nigel Farage has admitted in a live interview with Good Morning Britain that the Leave campaign had made a mistake in its promise to pour £350 million a week into the NHS if Britain backed a Brexit vote.

Speaking just hours after the referendum vote was announced, the UKIP leader told Susanna Reid he could not guarantee the money would be spent on the health service as promised by Leave campaigners in the fierce battle to convince the British people to opt out of the EU.

Vote Leave had pledged to spend £350 million earmarked for the European Union on the UK's struggling health service - a promise that would no doubt have been a key decider for many of those in favour of Brexit. The critical claim was key to the Leave campaign and emblazoned on the side of the Brexit tour bus which chauffeured Boris Johnson around the country in his bid to win over voters.

Susanna quizzed: "The £350 million a week we send to the EU every week, which we will no longer send to the EU, can you guarantee that will go to the NHS?"

Farage replied: "No I can't, and I would never have made that claim, it was one of the mistakes the Leave campaign made."

Susanna interjected: "So you're saying that after 17 million people have voted for Leave, I don't know how many people have voted based on that advert but that was a huge part of the propaganda, you're now saying that's a mistake?"

"We have a £10b a year, £34 million a week featherbed - that will be free money that we can spend on the NHS, on schools, on whatever it is," Farage said.